Description: The Ilyushin Il-38, May NATO name, is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and maritime patrol aircraft derived from the stretched fuselage of the Il-18 turboprop airliner which first flew in 1957. The first fly of the militarized Il-38 occurred on September 28, 1961 and the aircraft was fully operational with the Soviet Navy by 1967. It is powered by four AI-20M turboprop engines driving four-blade propellers. Each engine is rated at 4,190-shp of power. The Il-38 was deployed by the Soviet Union and exported to India in the 1970s. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Il-38 aircraft were split among Community of Independent States (CIS) members primarily Russia and Ukraine. In 2010 the Il-38 along with the Tu-142 remain the backbone maritime patrol capability of Russia and India. The Il-114MP maritime patrol aircraft is a potential replacement for the Il-38.

The Il-38 is equipped with magnetic anomaly detector (MAD), nose-mounted search radar called Wet-Eye by NATO, and sonobuoys. The armament options include torpedoes and depth charges both to take out submarines and carried inside two internal bays. Based upon the militarized Il-18, Coot NATO name, the Soviet Union developed two additional military variants. The Il-20 reconnaissance airplane, Coot-A NATO name, first flew on March 21, 1968. The Il-20 is an electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft equipped with advanced radio-electronic devices and a side looking radar. The Il-22, Coot-B NATO name, is an airborne command and control (C2) post which first flew in 1970. In early December 2010 two Il-38/Il-20 interrupted a joint US-Japan military drills in the Sea of Japan suspecting that the aircraft were gathering top secret data from the exercise.